For CFOs, the process of building a spinoff’s finance team and answering to regulators and investors is similar to an initial public stock offering, but separating from a parent company can pose additional challenges.

Abbott Laboratories split into two companies at the beginning of 2013. Chief Financial Officer Tom Freyman explains why a reverse integration sometimes makes the most sense, both for investors and from a management perspective, and how to go about it.

Pfizer’s planned spinoff of Zoetis, its animal health unit, will allow the pharmaceutical company to avoid paying taxes on cash it earns from the transaction. To accomplish this, the company is using a structure that’s unwieldy, if not exactly uncommon. As described in a filing with the SEC, Pfizer plans first on borrowing money from its underwriting banks, led by J.P. Morgan. Then, when the company is ready to spin off the unit, it will give the banks Class A shares in exchange for the debt, which it will retire. The underwriters will then sell the class A shares to the public and collect the cash.

Although spinoffs can often increase total shareholder value, a move to split Research In Motion into separate parts could hurt the company in the long run, say analysts.

“If you want to hit a single, OK, but if you’re going for a homerun, [a spinoff] is not the right strategy,” said Daniel Ernst, an analyst with Hudson Square Research. He said the company, which makes the Blackberry smartphones, the software that runs them, and owns a wireless network and several valuable patents, would best be served keeping the units integrated, much as Apple has done with its software and hardware divisions.

Kraft Foods Inc., Fortune Brands Inc. and Abbott Laboratories led this year’s parade of high-profile spinoffs, but even more companies are likely to follow them next year. Struggling to grow in a weak economy but wary of risky moves like acquisitions, many companies are focusing instead on peeling off dissimilar or underperforming units. The idea is to increase shareholder value, catering to what one corporate finance chief calls the current “pure-play mind-set.”

Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Spin-off activity remains heated, in sharp contrast to the IPO and M&A markets, which have cooled big-time in recent weeks. And Tyco, which announced a three-way spin-out today, is no stranger to this exercise, having split itself three ways once before, in 2007.

When Conoco announced plans in July to split its refining and production operations into separate companies, we reported that spin-offs were up 181% year to date. Now, that figure stands at 162%.

While the optimism about an economic recovery among many corporate executives has given way to greater caution, they remain confident in their own organizations, largely thanks to painful lessons learned from the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, says Carsten Stendevad, a managing director in Citigroup’s investment bank. But Stendevad, who heads Citi’s financial strategy group, a sort of in-house think tank that advises companies on corporate finance and corporate strategy, says companies need to avoid an overly-cautious approach that could hurt them in the long run. Updated with video.